Global Graphics Signs PDF Distribution Agreement With XLsoft In Japan

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

Cambridge, UK and Tokyo; July 8, 2003 — Global Graphics Software Limited has signed an agreement with leading software distributor XLsoft KK Japan which will see Global Graphics’ Portable Document Format (PDF) creation software - Jaws PDF Creator - localized for the Japanese market and on sale in computer stores throughout the country via retail channel partners such as Softbank and ComputerWave.
Global Graphics Software, a subsidiary of Global Graphics S.A. is a leading developer and supplier of high-performance solutions for document creation, management and printing mainly for the graphics arts, digital printing and corporate enterprise markets. XLsoft has established a reputation as a leading distributor of software products from around the world that it localizes and makes available in Japan. It numbers IBM Japan, Sony, Fujitsu, HP Japan and Ricoh among its customers.
Global Graphics’ announcement follows hard on the heels of a major Japanese contract signed last year with Japan’s largest developer and supplier of software, Justsystem Corporation, to integrate Jaws PDF Creator into their top selling word processing application Ichitaro, aimed principally at the corporate and government sectors. Today’s announcement boosts Global Graphics’ potential market for its PDF tools further in Japan where it established a Japanese company and opened an office in Tokyo in March 2003.
Mitsutoshi Watanabe, chief executive officer of XLsoft Corporation and XLsoft KK adds, “ Global Graphics’ Jaws PDF Creator uses their own high-efficiency PDF conversion engines that has high consumer awareness in Japan. It is also a cost-effective solution for creating PDF files, and with these characteristics we are sure that we will successfully market this product in Japan.”
Jim Freidah, Global Graphics Software’s president and chief operating officer, comments, “We have a solid customer base of OEMs in the graphic arts sector in Japan and are seeing a steady increase in demand for our Jaws PDF technology in the Asia Pacific region, both from software application developers, such as JustSystem, and from major distribution partners like XLsoft who have strong connections with the retail sector. This agreement is strategic in the sense that it gives us additional coverage for our PDF technology in a high profile
consumer environment, which will lead to greater brand awareness in this region.”